Erdogan handed every NATO leader a loaded revolver and a biography of himself at last week's Ankara summit, and the gift...

Erdogan handed every NATO leader a loaded revolver and a biography of himself at last week's Ankara summit, and the gifts are still causing headaches across Europe. Each leader received a wooden box bearing the Turkish flag and NATO logo, containing a Gumusay .357 Magnum, a six-shot revolver manufactured by Turkish state arms company MKE in the 1990s. The guns were not ceremonial. They came with live ammunition, and each piece was engraved with the recipient's name. Photos of the gift were first published by the Lithuanian president's office. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis plans to donate his revolver to the War Museum in Athens. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen intends to do the same at a military museum. Belgian PM Bart De Wever was caught off guard when his plane landed in Brussels and immediately handed the weapon and ammunition to airport police to be secured in a safe. Britain's outgoing PM Keir Starmer received his along with a cleaning kit and 500 rounds. Italy's Giorgia Meloni had hers stored at Palazzo Chigi alongside other official state gifts. Poland cleared it through customs with assurances that "nobody is going to shoot it," while the Netherlands and Sweden left their guns at their embassies in Ankara, with the Dutch planning to have theirs deactivated. Alongside the guns, Erdogan and his wife Emine presented leaders at a formal presidential dinner with a second gift: an English-language book titled "The Politics of Courage: Erdogan and the Rise of Turkiye," produced by the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Foundation. The book came with a personal signed letter from Erdogan describing it as an expression of "the aspirations we shared with our people" and "the legacy we leave to future generations." The stunt was a deliberate showcase for Turkey's domestic arms industry. According to the Small Arms Survey, Turkey was the world's third-largest exporter of small arms between 2019 and 2024, with exports reaching $3 billion, trailing only the United States and Italy. #NATO #Erdogan #Turkey